More SA businesses opt to outsource record and information management

Oct 19, 2017

With the enactment of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) an increasing number of organisations are outsourcing their records and information management (RIM) processes to better ensure POPI compliance.”

Wayne Clarke, Managing Director of Metrofile Records Management – a group company of JSE-listed Metrofile Holdings Limited, says that a reputable RIM partner can not only ensure POPIA compliance, but often saves the business a great deal of time as well.

“By consolidating and unifying both physical and electronic records and providing access to critical records in a timely and reliable manner, a good RIM partner enables consistency across workflows, locations and departments to speed up business processes.”

Another benefit of outsourcing RIM is the implementation and management of a customised records retention schedule, says Clarke.

“The RIM lifecycle involves a number of different activities from the time a record is created until it is finally archived or destroyed. Keeping track of this timeline is quite complicated and time consuming, especially for employees that have other core functions to focus on.”

He warns that it is important to remember that records document important business events and can include contracts, budgets, purchase orders, memos, e-mails, instant messaging logs, web site content, customer service records, images, videos and marketing material.

“These elements must all be stored in either a paper or electronic format to ensure that the organisation can access the information quickly and effortlessly if needs be.”

Clarke points to the ISO 15489: 2001 standard, which stipulates that records management activities must include the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposal of records.

“This includes the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records.”

“The effective management of records throughout their lifecycle is essential for critically important areas in a business, including enterprise information management, business intelligence, business analytics, regulatory compliance and disaster recovery. By partnering with a reputable RIM service provider, an organisation can spend less time worrying about the efficiency and effectiveness of the RIM system and focus on enhancing overall business functioning,” concludes Clarke.